Saturday, 11 February 2012

Rules for Kids

My daughter is now 5, and whilst thankfully not the spitting image of me, she is rather keen on Dragons, Goblins, and especially the Splintered Light animals - Skirrels being a particular favourite.

I've been encouraging the love of Fantasy since birth. Apart from the vast array of stuff from the likes of Splintered Light, Heresy, Hasslefree, Red Box Games, etc, kicking about the house, she's always been allowed, nay encouraged, to thumb through things like Paul Bonner's Out Of The Forests (can't recommend this book enough, it's beautiful). There's also subtle stuff like Julia Donaldson & Axel Schiffer's Gruffalo, Zog, and other books which are very good, and unarguably close to the Tolkien-esque fantasy world I inhabit.

When Mike was down the other week, offspring insisted on selecting my Warband (Skirrels and Bunnies), and lining the rest of the collection up on the nearest hill "to watch". This, to me, means she's ready to begin the first steps to geekhood.

So, I've downloaded the rather excellent Song of Fur & Buttons from Ganesha. SFB was written by Ben at Darwin Games, AKA Kermit. The basic premise of SFB is hinged around Eureka Games' splendidly daft Teddy Bear range, and runs as a narrative game - very good it is too. In fact, it's so splendid I'm going to get some Eureka teddies to play it with.

In the meantime though, I'm taking inspiration from SFB and going to adapt SSL into a similar vein; a sort of Nursery Rhyme of Splintered Lands. A bit of simplification of the special abilities into something a five year English girl can relate to, and perhaps some changes to the activation or combat system, and create a narrative adventure campaign based on the miniatures I have... think Hobbit meets Wind in the Willows meets Watership Down, all taken from my enormous Splintered Light collection, which is going to get dropped/chewed/pressed into service; the Not Wind in The Willows, the Badgers, Goblins, Squirrels, Foxes, Mice, and Dragons.

Him what writes stuff

A mildly mature product of the clay hills and sporadic woods of Sussex. Successfully bred. Perennially skint.
IT Salesman by trade, comes pre-installed with vast and random knowledge of World War 2, British history, British Political history, almost every warplane ever made, and a vague interest in mechanical devices, especially firearms and engines.
Secret shame includes historical wargaming, painting wargames miniatures, generally looking stupid during pub quizzes, and shirking responsibility.
Heroes and influences include Jack Hargreaves, Winston Churchill, Percy Hobart, Spike Milligan, Bill Bailey, Enoch Powell, and the greatest man of all time - the late Bob Hamilton.